NW Quilt Expo

I was lucky enough to have my friend Linda visit me for a long weekend from Vancouver, B.C. We had lots of fun shopping at Fabric Depot on Thursday, followed by Quilt Expo on Friday.

 I have to say I had more fun shopping then seeing the quilts at Expo. I always hope for some inspiration but I really didn't get wowed by too much at the show. I did get inspired to make a Tote bag today though. I'm going to use it at Journalfest in October to hold all my art supplies.

There are two big pockets inside as well as several on the outside. It was good to use my machine again. Maybe I will finish some quilts soon....

A Lovely Dream

I've started a new on line art journaling class with Suzi Blu. It's every other Thursday. You can watch the video for the class anytime you want. So far we have learned how to make our own journal with watercolor paper. Here is my journal with the cover painted.

So far we are working on a journal spread. It is a work in progress. I haven't worked with watercolors much but I'm enjoying it. The girl on the left is a magazine photo that we photocopied and then outlined with graphite paper. That way you don't have to know how to draw to add faces. I did do the face in the middle though. I took Suzi's portrait class which helped me learn to draw faces

What I did last night....

Last night, my partner in crime, Natalie and I revamped some of her spiral notebooks that she needs for starting Middle School next week. Here are several of our creations...

I also finished one of my Suzi Blu class projects. Her next class starts soon so I'm trying to get some of these done so I can focus on the new class. This one is on a 4" x 6" canvas. It features my dog and cat (Ernie and Baghera).

This one is from a previous lesson, it's not completely finished but it might not be for a while so here it is. It's called "Gnome Lover". It's also on a small canvas.



Unbelizable!

I just got back from my vacation to Belize! I brought a pre-prepped art journal to document my trip. I'm in the process of adding photos to it but have done a lot of journaling already. It was great to have along. It helped my get my creativity on! I loved having the supplies I brought with me but missed my paints for sure.

This is the cover of the album. It's mostly magazine scraps with a tag added. I beeswaxed it to seal all the layers together.

Here are some of the journal pages:

I also just wanted to do some art separate from my Belize album. I did a poppy page because I had supplies to create it and I love those poppies:

So that's what I did on my summer vacation!

New pages

Natalie and I are taking another Suzi Blu painting class. This one is called La la la and it's small paintings. Here is our first project:

I've also been working on journal pages, mainly painted backgrounds not much writting. I've been using a lot of stencils and spray inks! Fun!
 Here are a few:

I've also been doing some Calligraphy. I used to do Calligraphy years and years ago but it feels good to be using it again.

The Sketchbook Project

I signed up for the Sketchbook Project. They send you a journal and you pick a theme. My theme is "Ask me how I can help." At the end of January you send your Journal back and they tour around the world and are entered into a digital library where anyone can view your work. Pretty cool I thought. Here is my cover and one of my entries.


I also signed up for Journalfest in October in Port Townsend, WA. Three days of workshops! I'm super excited. I decided to make a crazy art lady apron so I won't keep spraying clothes with paint.

Art journal covers and Mermaids

I've decided to decorate two of my Art Journals. I have three going right now. It took me a while to get the pink one right. I had to cover up two other ideas that didn't work out. But I'm happy with them now. It's a little more exciting than plain black if I do say so myself.


Natalie has been doing the Suzi Blu Mermaid class with me. These are our first Mermaids.

Mine is the blond and Natalie's is the brown haired mermaid. I love how her background turned out. Not bad for 11 yrs old!

I have a couple other girls I'm working on but they are birthday gifts for my sisters and I'll have to wait to post the until after I gift them. Have you been creative lately? What are you working on?

Poppies

Lyne, here are the poppies you requested. The text didn't transfer very well, I think the book was too old maybe? Otherwise fun! I used a water brush with acrylic paints, looks like watercolor. This is inspired by Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday post on her blog: http://donnadowney.typepad.com/

new girls

Here are a couple pages I've finished, well they might still get added to.They are both journal pages. I'm looking forward to doing some art today with my artsy friend Lyne. Not sure what we're going to do yet but I know we'll have fun!

Mother's Day

Here is what I've been working on. The blue haired girl is from a face I drew when practicing faces. Her head is kind of shaped weird but oh well.

This next one is inspired by Teesha Moore's style. See link to her website on previous post.

Inspiration

Last night I got inspired by Mixed Media Artist Teesha Moore http://www.teeshaslandofodd.com/1/temp.html. She definitely has her own style. One of the things I love about her is that she often just writes what's on her mind without censoring. It's kind of like a stream of consciousness. She has lots of journal pages that she's made on her website and you can read them easily. One of them was just talking about the pen she was using to write on that particular page. She left me asking,"Well, what kind of pen is it?" Now I want one. You get the idea. She makes me feel like I should stop worrying so much about WHAT I'm writting and just write something. It doesn't matter. If I really think about it, art journaling is suppossed to show an insight to who you are, let the audience get to know you, the boring, the ugly, and the beautiful. I did put some words to pages recently. I'll post them later. In the meantime, go find some inspiration!

The latest stuff

So my daughter has joined me in my art classes with Suzi Blu. She wanted to take the Mermaid class so we're working on our first Mermaids. I'll post them when we're done. Here are a couple of the things I've been working on. The second girl with the flower in her hair is a journal spread. I need to fix the background, it's not working for me but I think the girl turned out good.

Angels

So I've been working on my Angels class. I finished one and now looking at pictures, I don't like it. So I'm going to try to fix it before posting it. It's kind of cheating but, it needs some help. In the mean time I made another gypsy girl and she is below. This was one I drew last night and painted this afternoon. Quickest one yet! I still have to work on my writting skills. But painting is so much fun! I know, I'm easily distracted. My daughter is getting in on the act. She started using the face drawing lessons and is bringing me gifts of girls she's drawn. Maybe I'll post some soon.

She's kind of dreamy, don't you think?

New stuff!

I've been working on an assignment for my art class. It's a Mother Mary. I like how she turned out.

Also, I've been making some rattles to sell at an upcoming Shamanic Journey class (www.lightsong.net)

Solitute

Here is a finished piece called "Solitude". And-it has writting on it!

art JOURNALING!

So in my excitement of learning to paint faces, etc. I forgot that there is a journaling aspect to all this! So I have lots of backgrounds ready for action but nothing to write. In fact the art class I'm taking is called The Goddess and the Poet. I kept wondering what the Poet was all about but realized that it was the written part of the class. Duh! I had downloaded the pdf files but neglected to READ them. So maybe today I will try some of the exercises (homework) and give it a shot. I'm really not being hard on myself, I'm just procrastinating...

Art Class

Hi Everyone! I've been having so much fun! I started an on line art class to learn how to draw and paint faces. Check out http://suziblu.ning.com/ to learn more. Here are some of my latest creations:

Greetings!

Hello, no pictures today. I have been painting lately but I'm going to do some more before I post them. What I've been experiencing is the fear of putting words down on the images. I know I just have to start writting, without fear or worry that it will be wrong or ruin the background. So that's what's happening here, a lot of time thinking about NOT writting anything! So my next post I hope to have some backgrounds with words, not so you can read them but so that I can get over that excuse of not having anything to say.

New Journal pages

These are some of my new backgrounds. So far I'm not doing a lot of journaling, but I'll be ready with pages when the mood strikes!

background pages

some blank background pages I created

                                             does anyone have tips on taking photos this close up?
                                             Too much glare!

now they just need some journaling!